Review: Maniac
Another review our friend Darren Goodfellow
The owner of a mannequin shop develops a dangerous obsession with a young artist.
I don’t know about you guys but when someone says Elijah Wood to me I think of two things; first, I see his big, shovel-shaped face in close up, screaming “SSAAAAAAAAAMM!” at me. Second, I think of that little kid in ‘Back To The Future Part II’ who burns Marty McFly for playing with a baby’s toy. What I don’t think about is John Carpenter-style synths, a Los Angeles that looks like it’s been tipped into the mouth of Hell and a killer who is making people have a very bad hair day. Well, I never used to think of that but then I watched ‘Maniac’. Now? Well, I’m never gonna look at ‘North’ the same way again, that’s for sure.
The opening six minutes of ‘Maniac’ (which were released as an extended trailer for the film ahead of it’s European debut and which you can view below) set the tone for the film.Consisting of a man stalking a woman at the end of a night out with her friend, it’s shot entirely from his P.O.V, bringing you disturbing close to the man. He chuckles to himself as he trails after his target in his car, taking pleasure in her obvious discomfort. When he starts to pull away, your relief is quickly soured when he whispers that he’ll see her at home. What he does when she gets there is jaw-droppingly shocking.
The majority of the film is told from the killer’s P.O.V, which is not a new technique but it is hard to think of a film that has used it to such unsettling effect. In recent memory only ‘Jack Reacher’ comes close with it’s P.O.V selecting of a sniper’s victims but here, with Wood’s heavy breathing and scarred hands dominating the frame as it closes on an unsuspecting woman, it feels all the worse because his crimes are committed up close, with a knife. When the blood flows and life leaves the victims eyes, it’s your eyes they are staring into.
Wood plays Frank, a mannequin restorer with some serious Mommy issues who has descended into madness and has embarked on a very unique killing spree. Wood’s performance is a million miles away from the ninja-like serial killer he played in ‘Sin City’. Frank is not a powerful, cartoon-like menace; he is real and pathetic and vulnerable. He is also very, very dangerous. The plot, slim though it is, revolves around Wood’s chance at a normal life with a woman who doesn’t seem to be repulsed by his junkie-like appearance, his fly-ridden workshop or his brillo-scrubbed hands. Given to flights of romantic fancy, Frank yearns for a normal life, free from the trauma of his past – which we get to see over the course of the film and damn, is it nasty – but who is trapped by his own dark compulsions.
It’s worth noting that the killings in this film are extremely graphic, each one more shocking than the last. I actually found it difficult to watch the third killing, given the circumstances in which it takes place and I am not in the least squeamish when it comes to horror films, usually. I do have to give props to the practical effects used in the film for that very reason though. They made me feel like throwing up which, I suppose, is a good thing for the FX guys, right? You made me sick, FX guys! Good job!
Overall, ‘Maniac’ is a deeply upsetting and nasty piece of cinema, with an unique look at the serial killer/slasher genre. It is a remake of course, of ‘Maniac’ (1980)http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081114/ and follows much of the same plot but where that film had a dark, feral intensity, this film feels like a fever dream, like a nightmare you’d have while home with the flu.
There’s also a sex scene which is soundtracked by ‘Goodbye, Horses’ by Q Lazarus – the Buffalo Bill ‘Tuck and Dance’ song from ‘The Silence of the Lambs’, just in case you don’t think this is messed up enough.
Watch the first six minutes of the film here and prepare to wash that Hobbit right out of your hair.
Grade: B